Thursday 2nd January 2025, 19:32
I've just taken a glance at the Daily Fail to see what absurdity they are currently peddling to the English speaking public. The first headline to catch my attention was:
Don't go outside! NHS warns Brits not to go out in early morning or evenings and to stock up on food and medication as nation braces for three days of snow in -10C ice blast
The article goes on to say:
The NHS Black Country integrated care board warned: 'Avoid going out early in the morning when frost is thick or late at night when it's dark,' it said, adding that people should wear shoes with good grip and keep their hands free to stabilise themselves.
In dribs and drabs we get a little more detail about the coming apocalypse:
While the amount of snow set to fall in London has not been confirmed, about 2in (5cm) is expected widely across the Midlands, Wales and northern England.
...
temperatures began falling early this morning with a low of -8C (17F) in the Scottish Highlands and -7C (19F) at Shap in Cumbria.
Tomorrow morning could bring even colder temperatures of -10C (14F) in snow-covered parts of Scotland as well as -4C (25F) in London.
One of the images used to illustrate the story was this:
The UK Health Security Agency imposed an amber cold health alert until January 8 which warns the weather will likely cause 'significant impacts across health and social care services'
? Why?
These are the sort of temperatures and amounts of snow we have here on the coast in Eastern Norway right now and apart from occasioning a small amount of snow shovelling to make sure that it's possible to get one's car out of the drive everything is perfectly normal and non-threatening. We had about 7 cm of snow on New Year's Eve. The snow ploughs worked all night last night to make sure the roads were clear for people to drive to work and footpaths clear for those of us who walk to the shops and bus stops.
And before anyone whines about the cost of snow ploughs for occasional snowfalls I should mention that most of the local snow clearing is done by farmers with a small snow plough blade on the front of the tractor or just the usual earth moving bucket that they use on the farm to move grain, animal feed, mud, slurry, etc. The local authority pays them to clear the town rather than maintain a fleet of lorries.
I presume that the DM is just filling column inches, or do people really worry so much about these small amounts of snow? Obviously one should not drive on summer tyres in such conditions but buses should surely be supplied with chains if necessary. But surely the conditions themselves should not feel so threatening as the most extreme conditions are short lived and mostly in lightly populated parts of the UK unlike here where they are general and affect pretty much the whole population for weeks or month on end.
